The much anticipated cinematic return of Downton Abbey follows the Crawleys and their staff as they welcome a movie crew and their glamorous stars to Downton for the filming of a new silent movie, while other members of the family go on a grand adventure to a villa in the south of France to uncover a mystery about the Dowager Countess and her past.

With a screenplay by Julian Fellowes and starring the original cast alongside exciting new additions, Downton Abbey: A New Era is packed full of exuberant moments, excitement and humour, tears of joy and sadness and new beginnings for all your favourite characters.

South African-born Roger Michell, (director of Notting Hill, Changing Lanes, My Cousin Rachel) brings us this British documentary which follows Dames Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright as they take a look back at their lives and careers while spending a weekend at a country retreat.

From time to time four old friends, all extraordinary actresses, meet up in the English countryside to gossip, to remember and to laugh. For once they let the cameras in...

Nothing Like A Dame is a unique celebration of the lives and careers of four iconic actresses: Dame Eileen Atkins, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Joan Plowright and Dame Maggie Smith. All four have gone from being fledgling actresses in the 1950s to acting royalty. They've watched each other's careers grow and bloom and have celebrated life's ups and downs together. Nothing Like A Dame invites you to spend time with these acting legends as they talk about their lives and their professional experiences across theatre, television and film.

Candid, funny, caustic, irreverent, poignant and utterly engrossing, this unmissable documentary film is proof that there is truly nothing like a Dame...

Heart-warming drama about unfulfilled dreams, innocence and unrequited love. Janet (Maggie Smith) and Ursula (Judi Dench) are sisters who discover a castaway on the beach below their house. They nurse him back to health with the help of the local doctor (David Warner) and discover he has a talent as a musician. However, the castaway has an unsettling effect on the sisters, especially Ursula, whose life changes forever.

A double bill of films set in India. Comedy-drama 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' (2011) follows the experiences of a group of elderly Brits who arrive to take up residence in a newly-opened retirement home in Bangalore, India. Despite its glossy publicity campaign, the Marigold turns out to be rather different from the refurbished luxury hotel advertised in the brochures. However, it soon begins to reveal some unexpected charms of its own. Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson and Maggie Smith star.

'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008), the rags-to-possible riches tale, was the winner of eight Oscars at the 2009 Academy Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. Jamal Malik (Patel) is an 18-year-old street kid from the slums of Mumbai. So what is he doing appearing on the Indian version of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'? How can a young man from his background of poverty have acquired the knowledge to be only one correct answer away from winning 20 million rupees? With only one more question to be asked, however, the dream turns to nightmare. As the hooter sounds to signal the end of the show, Jamal is arrested and accused of cheating. No one can believe that he could really know all of the answers he has given. As Jamal tells the story of his life to the police, the reasons for his success begin to appear. Will Jamal be freed to hear the final question and, if so, will he know the answer?

Salem, Massachusetts, is the quintessential New England town, with its cobbled streets and strong ties to the sea. With the notoriety of the Salem witch trials, the city's reputation has been irrevocably linked to the occult. However, few know the history behind the religion of Spiritualism and the social movement that took root in this romanticized land. At the turn of the century, seers, mediums and magnetic healers all hoped to connect to the spiritual world. The popularity of Spiritualism and renewed interest in the occult blossomed out of an attempt to find an intellectual and emotional balance between science and religion. Learn of early converts, the role of the venerable Essex Institute and the psychic legacy of "Moll" Pitcher. Historian Maggi Smith-Dalton delves into Salem's exotic history, unraveling the beginnings of Spiritualism and the rise of the Witch City.

First instalment of the fantasy adventure series based on the novel by J.K. Rowling. On his eleventh birthday, orphan Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) discovers that he is a wizard when he receives a letter of acceptance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Newly enrolled at Hogwarts, Harry is introduced to the wizarding world and learns the truth about his famous past before meeting fellow first-years Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint). The three friends have a surprise encounter with a three-headed dog guarding a secret trapdoor and begin to suspect that something important might be hidden beneath the school. When they investigate it leads to an encounter with the evil wizard Voldemort (Ian Hart).

Will Harry be able to keep up with his studies, lead his team to victory in the school sport Quidditch and still triumph over Voldemort?

Double bill of films set in India. In 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), John Madden directs an all-star cast of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Ronald Pickup and Tom Wilkinson as a group of mature Brits who travel to India looking for a sunnier climate in which to retire. Despite its glossy publicity campaign, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful turns out to be rather different from the refurbished luxury hotel advertised in the brochures. However, as the previously lonely people grow closer, the hotel soon begins to reveal some unexpected charms of its own. 'Life of Pi' (2012) is an Academy Award-winning fantasy adventure based on Yann Martel's Booker Prize-winning novel. Suraj Sharma stars as Pi Patel, a 16-year-old zookeeper's son from Pondicherry who finds himself stranded on a small boat in the Pacific Ocean in the company of a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger following the shipwreck of the freighter on which he and his family were sailing for Canada. Over the course of several months Pi manages to survive on the meagre supplies of food and water he finds on the boat, and also takes up fishing, while in his half-delirious state he muses on various aspects of animal behaviour, religion and the meaning of life.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A bittersweet study in both grief and joy." ---Time "A sparklingly beautiful memoir-in-vignettes" (Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author) that explores coming of age in your middle age--from the bestselling poet and author of Keep Moving. "Life, like a poem, is a series of choices." In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman's personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she's known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy. You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother's fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman's love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is "extraordinary" (Ann Patchett) in the way that it reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new and beautiful.

New York Times bestselling author and poet Maggie Smith distills creativity and the craft of writing with a practical guide perfect for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.

Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts.

Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life.

The worldwide phenomenon DOWNTON ABBEY, becomes a grand motion picture event, as the beloved Crawleys and their intrepid staff prepare for the most important moment of their lives.

A royal visit from the King and Queen of England will unleash scandal, romance and intrigue that will leave the future of Downton hanging in the balance.

Written by series creator Julian Fellowes and starring the original cast.

I should have heeded my husband's apprehension and our friends' advice, but I wanted that house. Because Ron and I were public school teachers and supported public education, we ignored our friends' warnings and enrolled our daughters in Marion's school system. A year later I transferred to the Marion system from Florence where I had developed two educational programs: the itinerant learning disabilities program and a self-contained middle school class for emotionally disturbed juvenile delinquents. In Marion, I was assigned to two schools as a learning disabilities clinician. Within weeks of my transfer, my first encounter with the establishment made me acutely aware that the warnings of our friends were accurate. Almost four decades since the landmark decision in Pickering v. Board of Education, 1968, many teachers still cannot criticize their school system without fear of retaliation. When author Maggi Hall, a veteran public school teacher, wrote a letter to the newspaper in Marion County, South Carolina, criticizing her school district, she didn't realize that one day she would be called upon to defend the cornerstone of democracy itself-the First Amendment.

“To read Maggie Smith is to embrace the achingly precious beauty of the present moment.” —Time From the award-winning poet and bestselling author of Keep Moving and Good Bones, a stunning poetry collection that celebrates the beauty and messiness of life. With her breakout bestseller Keep Moving, Maggie Smith captured the nation with her “meditations on kindness and hope” (NPR). Now, with Goldenrod, the award-winning poet returns with a powerful collection of poems that look at parenthood, solitude, love, and memory. Pulling objects from everyday life—a hallway mirror, a rock found in her son’s pocket, a field of goldenrods at the side of the road—she reveals the magic of the present moment. Only Maggie Smith could turn an autocorrect mistake into a line of poetry, musing that her phone “doesn’t observe / the high holidays, autocorrecting / shana tova to shaman tobacco, / Rosh Hashanah to rose has hands.”​ Slate called Smith’s “superpower as a writer” her “ability to find the perfect concrete metaphor for inchoate human emotions and explore it with empathy and honesty.” The poems in Goldenrod celebrate the contours of daily life, explore and delight in the space between thought and experience, and remind us that we decide what is beautiful.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "A meditation on kindness and hope, and how to move forward through grief." --NPR "A shining reminder to learn all we can from this moment, rebuilding ourselves in the darkness so that we may come out wiser, kinder, and stronger on the other side." --The Boston Globe "Powerful essays on loss, endurance, and renewal." --People Cosmopolitan's "Best Nonfiction Books of 2020" Marie Claire's "2020 Books You Should Pre-Order Now" Parade's "25 Self-Help Books To Get Your 2020 Off On The Right Foot" The Washington Post's "What to Read in 2020 Based on the Books You Loved in 2019" For fans of Cheryl Strayed and Anne Lamott, a collection of quotes and essays on facing life's challenges with creativity, courage, and resilience. When Maggie Smith, the award-winning author of the viral poem "Good Bones," started writing inspirational daily Twitter posts in the wake of her divorce, they unexpectedly caught fire. In this deeply moving book of quotes and essays, Maggie writes about new beginnings as opportunities for transformation. Like kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, Keep Moving celebrates the beauty and strength on the other side of loss. This is a book for anyone who has gone through a difficult time and is wondering: What comes next?

The entire third series of the ITV costume drama following the lives and loves of those above and below stairs in an English stately home. With World War One finally over, the 1920s heralds the promise of a new age for those at Downton Abbey. But while the family prepare for the wedding of Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Matthew (Dan Stevens), Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) learns that the future of Downton is in grave jeopardy after the collapse of investments made with his wife (Elizabeth McGovern)'s fortune. With the family beginning to gather for the wedding celebrations, a grand entrance by Cora's thoroughly modern mother, Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine), threatens to ruffle a few of the Dowager (Maggie Smith)'s feathers.

If you were an octopus, you′d have eight legs to put into pants!

Follow one little boy through his day as he playfully considers how mealtime, bath time, nap time, and many other activities would be different if he were a bird, a tiger, or any number of baby animals. Julie Markes′s first picture book is charmingly illustrated by Maggie Smith.

Maggie Smith, bestselling author of the viral poem “Good Bones” and the memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, delivers a lyrical and reassuring picture book perfect for calming active minds at bedtime (or anytime). At bedtime, when lights go out…sometimes thoughts stay on. Scary things and worries flutter and flap around. It’s so hard to sleep! But a little imagination (and a lot of love) can create a cozy nest for happy thoughts—and sweet dreams for little ones.

To integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning was the overarching goal of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014). This, it was believed, would 'save the planet', encouraging behaviour changes to allow for the development of a more sustainable and just society for all. Awareness of sustainable development has risen enormously in recent years, challenging us, as individuals and as families, workplaces, and communities (both local and global), to think about and act upon the major issue which we face. The Decade reaffirmed the United Nations' commitment to the crucial role of education and learning in the pursuit of sustainable development, and the need for far-reaching changes in the way education is often practised. Of course, the very idea that education should be for something (whether sustainable development or anything else), remains as questionable as ever. Nevertheless the instigation of the Decade clearly recognised the need for intensified efforts to achieve sustainable development. This book reflects on the role and impact of the Decade in helping to reorient education towards sustainability, and looks forward, beyond the end of the Decade and its achievements, to contemplate the way ahead, giving special attention to case studies and the state of affairs in England. The authors offer different perspectives on the effectiveness and value of particular initiatives and practices that are responses to the Decade. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Curriculum Journal.

'Keep Moving speaks to you like an encouraging friend reminding you that you can feel and survive deep loss, sink into life's deep beauty and constantly make yourself new' Glennon Doyle, bestselling author of Untamed 'Candid, lyrical and full of empathy, this is a book that feels vital and welcome in these times - for those who are struggling, or anyone just seeking joy' Sinead Gleeson, author of Constellations 'Maggie Smith writes so honestly without being brutal and she shows readers hope while avoiding the saccharine. To experience relief from am book is rare and wonderful thing. Keep Moving gave me that relief' Bella Mackie, author of Jog On 'I'm so grateful for the clarity, compassion, and wit in these pages. This is a book that will change you, a book you will want to give to someone you love. I've never read anything quite like it' Lucy Kalanithi, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, Stanford University, and widow of Paul Kalanithi, author of When Breath Becomes Air To help navigate her way through a difficult divorce, the poet Maggie Smith started sharing her daily 'notes to self' on social media and soon found that her thoughts resonated with people going through a host of life changes. In this deeply moving book of thoughts, quotes and personal essays, Maggie Smith writes about new beginnings as opportunities for transformation. Like kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, Keep Moving celebrates the beauty and strength on the other side of loss. This is a book for anyone who has gone through a difficult time and is wondering: What comes next? 'I read this book in one sitting during one of the most difficult weeks of my life . . . Every single page of this book made me breathe a little deeper and feel a little less alone' Amanda Palmer

'Life, like a poem, is a series of choices' In her long-awaited debut memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, award-winning poet Maggie Smith explores in lyrical vignettes the end of her marriage and the beginning of a surprising new life. With the spirit of reflection and empathy she's known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness and narrative itself. It is a story about a mother's fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman's love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is an argument for possibility. Smith reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new. Something beautiful.

Young David Copperfield's (Ciaran McMenamin) life is not a happy one. To begin with, after the death of his father, he sees his mother marry the villainous Edward Murdstone (Trevor Eve). Then, when his mother sadly also dies, he moves to live with Mr Micawber (Bob Hoskins) and encounters the scoundrel Uriah Heep (Nicholas Lyndhurst). Is there no end to the young lad's misfortune? This BBC production of Charles Dickens' semi-autobiographical novel formed the mainstay of their Christmas 1999 programming.

It"s a good thing
you're not an
octopus!

If you were an octopus, you would have eight legs to put into your pants!

Follow one little boy through his day as he playfully considers how mealtime, bath time, nap time, and many other activities would be different if he were a bird, a tiger, or any number of baby animals. At the end of the day he realizes that the best thing of all is to be himself!

Julie Markes's first picture book is charmingly illustrated by Maggie Smith.

The entire fourth series of the award-winning ITV costume drama following the lives and loves of those above and below stairs in an English stately home. It's 1922, and six months after a tragic car accident, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is still trying to come to terms with her loss. Meanwhile, as mass unemployment, political upheaval and economic crisis threaten the social order of the day, the family and staff of Downton Abbey try to adjust to life in a changing world.

In this charming picture book, a cheerful family tumbles out of the car and onto the beach, ready for a perfect day. Buoyant verse just right for reading aloud and bright, playful illustrations capture the singular feeling of a hazy, lazy day by the ocean, complete with a ball game with new friends, water-skiers and sailboats, and a picnic lunch of fried chicken and deviled eggs. This book is a captivating introduction to the beach for young children and an irresistible gift for beach lovers of any age.

"Here in Maggie Smith’s first book we encounter a voice that is spare, confident, and precise. Her images click into place, and the movement of each poem is deft, muscular, taut. These are poems we trust, poems that ask hard questions while at the same time convincing us of the magic in the world. Smith’s voice is reserved, yet she carries her world forward in her teeth, so to speak. There’s wisdom and acceptance in many of the poems, coupled with a willingness to utter what she does not understand, a recognition 'that worse happens to better than I.' She embraces the mystery. There’s a kinship with the Ohio landscape, but also the recognition that 'darkness ploughs its furrows here.' These are poems that do not flinch in the face of grief while at the same time they do not give into formulas that either comfort or accuse. I admire the courage and the control, the gorgeous turns, the leaps she takes in the poems while keeping the center of each poem intact. These are poems that do not wobble; the voice is confident and secure, the authority claimed, and the darkness met head on—'mealy, and bitter' but as she writes in 'The Poem Speaks to Danger': 'I am the mouth/that can hold more . . . the globe // of some new, ready fruit.' This is a book that delights, intrigues, and instructs. A wonderful debut." —Carol Potter